Pull-over life vest with half-zip

ABSTRACT

A pull-over life vest with half-zip has a zipper disposed on the front panel with a closed-end and an open-end. Preferably, the zipper has a beginning closed-end located in the vertical and horizontal center of the front panel and a terminating open-end located at the vertical and horizontal lower edge of the front panel.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to life vest devices and morespecifically, to life vest fabrication.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to life vests of the type generally knownas personal floatation devices (PFD's). A life vest comprises a bodyportion that is typically either formed of a buoyant material or has afabric shell filled with a buoyant material. A life vest also comprisesa means for securing the body onto a wearer's torso, such as azipper-free pull-over design, or a fully open-ended front panel frontzipper entry where the zipper begins with an open-end at the verticaland horizontal upper edge and terminates with an open-end at thevertical and horizontal lower edge of the front panel. In this method,the fully open-ended front panel front zipper entry relies on a “box andpin” mechanism to lock the two sides of the zipper into place.

Personal floatation devices such as life vests are often worn duringwater sports such as tow-in surfing, wakeboarding, kiteboarding,waterskiing, and knee boarding. Such water sports involve a high rate ofspeed, demanding physical maneuvering, and high-impact wipeouts.

Many life vests are pull-over type vests without zippers which are oftendifficult to remove when the user and/or the vest are wet. Anotherpopular life vest design includes a fully open-ended front panel frontzipper entry to secure the life vest to a user's body. Such fullyopen-ended front panel front zipper entry life vests are prone tofailure from repeated zipping and unzipping, being stepped on, and/orencountering the physical forces applied to it from a high-impactwipeout. When a fully open-ended front panel zipper front entry fails inuse, the function of the life vests safety is compromised. For example,in the event that the fully open-ended front panel front zipper entryshould fail during use, the user's life could be at risk due to thelikelihood that the life vest could slip off or be torn off of the user.

A major advantage of the pull-over life vest with half-zip is that thefront panel can be more fully padded with buoyant material than a fullyopen-ended front panel front zipper entry life vest to better maintain awearer floating face-up in the water if the wearer is unconscious. Theadditional padding may also protect the wearer against the shock ofhigh-impact wipeouts. Furthermore, the pull-over life vest with half-zipprevents the life vest from slipping off or being torn off of the userin the event of a zipper failure. In addition, a pull-over life vestwith half-zip is more easily worn and removed than the more conventionalzipper-free pull-over life vests.

These problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and aresolved by the present invention in the manner described below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises a pull-over life vest with half-ziphaving a zipper disposed on the front panel with an open-end and aclosed-end. Preferably, the zipper has a beginning closed-end located inthe vertical and horizontal center of the front panel and a terminatingopen-end located at the vertical and horizontal lower edge of the frontpanel. The term “panel” is used for convenience, and a panel does notnecessarily correspond to any specific construction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention aredescribed in detail below with reference to the following drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a pull-over life vest incorporating thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a back view of a pull-over life vest incorporating the presentinvention of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view cross-section of a buoyant segment of the presentinvention;

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, a pull-over life vest with half-zipcomprises a back panel 10 joined to a front panel 11. Back panel 10 isjoined to front panel 11 at the top of the vest by two shoulder portions12 and 13 that together define a top panel having an opening throughwhich a wearers head (not shown) may extend. Back and front panels 10and 11 are joined at both the left-hand side 14 and the right-hand side15 of the vest. The vertical and horizontal center of the front panel 16of the vest defines the beginning of the closed-end of the zipper andthe vertical and horizontal lower edge of the front panel 17 defines theterminating open-end of the zipper through which a wearer may placetheir torso (not shown) to enter or exit the vest.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, 18 made of a suitable fabric material such asnylon enclosing a suitable buoyant material core 19 such as foamedflexible poly-vinyl chloride (FPVC).

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated anddescribed, as noted above, many changes can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope ofthe invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferredembodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A life vest, comprising: A body portion having afront panel, a back panel, a top panel, and two side panels, said frontand back panels each having an upper edge, a lower edge, and two sideedges, both side edges of said front panel adjoin each side panel, andboth side panels each adjoin side edges of said back panel, all loweredges of said front, back, and side panels define an opening forreceiving a wearers torso, said top panel having a front edge, a backedge and an opening for receiving a wearers head, said front edge ofsaid top panel adjoining said upper edge of said front panel, said backedge of said top panel adjoining said upper edge of said back panel. 2.The life vest claimed in claim 1, wherein a zipper is fixedly attachedto said front panel.
 3. The life vest claimed in claim 2, wherein saidzipper preferably has a beginning closed-end located in the vertical andhorizontal center of the front panel and a terminating open-end locatedat the vertical and horizontal lower edge of the front panel.